1.+APPLE+-+ePortfolio

 =Background=
 * APTS e-Portfolio project **
 * ﻿ **

The Learning Options and The Association of Providers of Training Services (APTS) ePortfolio project was one of five projects supported by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework in the ACT in 2011.

The ACT Association of Providers of Training Services Incorporated (APTS) is a member based organisation established to support providers of training in Canberra and the surrounding region. Established in 1991, APTS is the peak body of non-government training providers in the ACT and surrounding region. APTS is an active and dynamic organisation. Its members are diverse and include locally based training organisations, individual trainers and members of national organisations. APTS is Affiliated with the ACT & Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Learning Options has been an APTS member since 2002, and staff have provided project management services to APTS, and mentoring and coaching to APTS members on a range of topics over many years. Learning Options identified the opportunities that could be gained through a group of APTS RTO members collaborating to explore and implement e-portfolio technology. The APPLE project (APTS Portable Learning Environments) was initiated with the support of the Innovations funding.

Learning Options appointed a project manager, Sharon Carter Figueiredo, to work with the nominated RTOs to implement e-portfolio technology, and for each RTO to then utilise the technology with their identified student cohort.

E-portfolio's present a range of challenges for training providers including:
 * Storage and hosting
 * Ownership of material
 * Retention of material and access of the learner post course completion
 * Transportability of the e-portfolio.

The project explored these challenges and produced a collation of information as follows:


 * Student 'How To' Guides**


 * Edit Profile
 * Resume
 * Setting up your view shell
 * Applying themes and layouts to views
 * Adding content to view
 * How to export and unzip the e-portfolio onto a new provider’s platform (guide for RTO & Students)
 * How to zip the e-portfolio and save to disk (guide for student)


 * Registered Training Organisation 'How To' Guides**
 * Templates for use in policy & procedure
 * How to install Mahara on the Moodle platform (guide for RTO)


 * Trainer 'How to' Guides**
 * How to export and unzip the e-portfolio onto a new provider’s platform (guide for RTO & Students)
 * How to zip the e-portfolio and save to disk (guide for student)

=What was done=

The project commenced with the forming of a group of participating RTO's and a nominated representative from each. The initial group worked to identify the shared needs and expectations of the project, and collaboratively decided upon the project strategy to be adopted to meet project outcomes.

Learning Options as the lead RTO moved to the research and environmental scanning phase. Representatives attended the e-learning conference in Melbourne, spoke with ePortfolio software providers and trialled systems, and an online conference was organised with Alison Taylor, the national e-Portfolio Manager from the Flexible Learning Framework.

We scoped the IT capacity of the RTO's, and appointed a Project Manager to drive and coordinate the project.

Mahara was selected as the e-Portfolio platform to be used for the project, and a demo site was set up and functionality tested. This phase of the project was the first hurdle as the VET online communities shy away from any discussion around the technical considerations and installation issues. The national conference was very clear that they would only discuss pedagogy, not technical issues. The showcased technology providers at the conference were either very expensive, or in the case of eWorks - would only discuss minimum student numbers. This phase was the biggest challenge - we needed to find the right product for more all of the RTO's involved in the project.

In testing the software we experimented with the functionality in Mahara that allows for different institutions to be created and moved away from our original intention of utilising the time of the Project Manager to assist RTO's with installation of the technology. There were too many variables to be considered across the RTO's and it was apparent that installation was not the best use of the Project Manager's time. The institution option in Mahara provided the perfect solution in that we were able to complete one install of Mahara with a number of institutions. However what we lost in centralising portfolio's was an RTO's capacity to use the 'Mahoodle' approach whereby the user's have one integrated logon across the institution's Moodle and Mahara platforms.

The project team visited with Merici College who showcased their use of Mahara. This was particularly useful as it allowed the project team to understand how the colleges in the ACT were currently utilising ePortfolios, and enabled us to consider the portability issues, challenges and opportunities across the education sectors.

Once the installation was completed, the Project Team commenced demonstrating the platform to the involved RTO's. By this time, the RTO's comprising the project group had changed, as had their intended student cohorts. Learning Options for our cohort opted to implement the ePortfolio initially with our Diploma of Training & Assessment students (our original target group was Diploma of Management) as we identified that if we engaged 12 Diploma training students, all of whom have high level responsibilities in training organisations, we could achieve an immediate impact in terms of embedding the new technology in teaching practices across a larger number of training organisations.

The students engaged in the project were drawn from:

Optimum Training & Development (RTO) CatholicCare (Training Organisation/non RTO) 3 independent Training Contractors ACT Corrective Services (RTO) ACT Emergency Services (RTO) Australian Forensic Services (RTO) ACT Department of Justice & Community Safety (Learning and Development Unit) Capital Workforce Solutions (Training Organisation/non RTO) Capital Careers (RTO) Australian International Education Academy (RTO)

We also showcased to Independent Property Group who are now undertaking R&D into eLearning opportunities for their RTO.

=Benefits experienced by the Learners=

Learners were mostly mature aged learners enrolled in full qualifications. Many mature age learners have a wealth of experience in their workplace. These workers have developed the skills and experience that would enable them to gain Recognition for a qualification but have often not retained evidence of their professional development or other evidence that would support them in gaining recognition. Enabling and supporting these people to develop an e-portfolio has helped them to gather evidence then keep in in one place and allow them to use the portfolio across multiple qualifications if required. The project has also supported the development of e-skills in an industry that is slow in developing e-skills. Many of these learners have commenced blogging and using social web sites after being exposed to Mahara and Moodle. This has then been able to be incorporated into their learning and assessment.

Learners have been exposed to Mahara, Moodle and have started using social media such as face book and elluminate for virtual class room sessions. Learners who have been hesitant in using e-learning have discovered that e-leanring can be Interesting and interactive. They have discovered the wonderful art of blogging and reveiving answers to their blogs. They have participated in elluminate sessions that has broadened their scope of what e-learning can entail and they have learnt to uploadphotos and files to Mahara and Moodle.

=Lessons learnt=

The issues that arose for the team included:


 * Volunteer capacity of committee members of APTS meant that there was a lack of commitment to the project outcomes. This was anticipated and included in the risk management strategy, and this was why Learning Options was appointed as the lead RTO and the project driver.
 * Technology issues in respect of the open source nature of the software. Feedback from our IT support was that they found it very time consuming to utilise open source software where there is no corporate support or help desk, and support relies on community contributions. This meant many wasted hours filtering through forums to find answers to simple issues.
 * The project did not anticipate the layer of professional development required by trainers and assessors in the participating RTO's. Whilst we did build in a PD phase in the project plan, we didn't anticipate that trainers and assessors would want to experience the technology as a __user__ before they used it as an __assessor__. Trainers and assessors had to be given time to use the technology in the capacity of a student, before they were prepared to roll it out.
 * Awareness of the need for introductory procedures for new users of online learning material. Very early on we sourced a short [[file:MaharaQuickreferenceGuide_students[1].pdf]] for learners to direct them to the site.
 * Awareness of the need for Terms and Conditions to be developed to explain to users on first registering with the site. These have been put together in customisable template form and appear in the templates section.
 * Awareness of the need for policy on recording of classroom sessions to be developed. This was an 'off topic' outcome that wasn't directly related to the use of the ePortfolio system, but related to the user's data and content that could then be uploaded to their ePortfolio. The project had direct experience with a class session being recorded that included small group work, where there was an incident and the persons involved were not aware of the recording being taken. We had to quickly formulate some policy around this as the scenario highlighted a potential risk of students uploading digital content that breached privacy or other statues. These appear also in the templates section.

=The results= = = Engagement of learners. Site statistics show: > Active users: 1 today, 3 since 07 June, 51 all time > On average, each user is in 0.4 groups > Users who make views have about 2.4 views each Users were engaged in the following qualifications:
 * **Users:** 52
 * **Groups:** 3
 * **Views:** 128
 * Diploma of Management
 * Advanced Diploma of Children’s Services
 * Diploma of Training & Assessment
 * Certificate IV in Training & Assessment
 * Diploma of Government

The platform for Mahara is now available to all APTS members here. Information sharing sessions will be ongoing through APTS meetings and RTO networks.

=Reflections and suggestions= Our project was altered in respect of the 'product' to be returned to the framework when it became evident that there was copious amounts of resource information available and already in existence for each of our target groups (RTO, Trainers and Students). It was not time efficient or good use of resources to reinvent the wheel in this respect. To facilitate this project change, we should in hindsight have had an agreed project variation form for use with the framework team to document the verbal change.

=Framework connection= The project utilised the support of both the ACT Framework team and Alison Miller, the National EPortfolio Business Manager from the framework. Alison's advice via teleconference with the project team was invaluable.